Marred Perfection
by Kella2
Summary: Response to Kantayra's "Practically Perfect..." challenge. Buffy makes a wish that will change Spike forever. But what happens when the Spike that loves her is replaced by a Spike that *she* can love, and who doesn't love her back? Please R&R!


Disclaimer: So, I was sitting in bed one morning, waiting patiently for my breakfast, when Joss comes back in. sans tray. He's talking on the phone, something about getting security quickly. I look at him in concern, "What is it, sweetheart?" He looks at me and smiles really big. "Nothing, nothing at all. Um, we're going to have company soon, don't you want to get dressed?" I frown. "But, Joss, I thought we were going to have a cozy morning with strawberries and pancakes. You were going to tell me all about your idea for a new show, remember?" He fidgets. I think there may be something wrong with him that he needs Ritalin. The man is always fidgeting. At that point, three burly security men burst through the bedroom French doors and haul my naked ass out of bed. I scream, I cry, and Joss just stands there. I think it was the shock that his own employees betrayed him by stealing his girlfriend. "Joss! Help!" I cried out as they slapped some kinky cuffs on me and hauled me off with a blanket thrown around my shoulders. I'm not worried. My cellmate is nice, even if it was a mistake that caused us to meet. And Joss will come for me. You can't stop love that easily, O Dastardly Security Men!  
  
Chapter One:  
  
"Buffy, wait!"  
  
"What part of 'leave me alone' went over your head, Spike?" Buffy ground out, clenching the stake in one hand.  
  
Spike slowed his running as he neared her and held his hands out in surrender. "I just wanted to say." He ran a hand through his hair, and if vampires could blush with embarrassment, he would have been at that moment. When he saw Buffy roll her eyes and start to turn away, he continued quickly, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the other night."  
  
She stopped in her tracks, then spun around to face him, an innocent expression on her face. "Which part are you sorry for, Spike? The part where I got electro-shock therapy via cattle prod? Or perhaps it was the part where you had me cuffed and chained to a wall, but without the fun kinkiness. 'cuz hey, it's you. Or, hey! I know!" She grinned a big, fake, toothy smile. The kind of smile that should have sent Spike running. "Perhaps it was the part where you proclaimed your undying love to me just before threatening to feed me to your whore of an ex-girlfriend?" She caught him by complete surprise with a quick one-two punch to the gut and the lower regions. "Sorry, not jiving with the acceptance of your lame-ass attempt at apologizing for any of that."  
  
She walked away, leaving him gasping for unneeded breath.  
  
He raised his head slightly, watching her walk off as he tried to ignore the inflicted pain to his nether parts. A hostile growl rolled up his throat. "Everything would be so much easier if I didn't love her."  
  
Buffy, meanwhile, was nearing the edge of the cemetery as she made her way home. She fought to keep her anger in check so she didn't worry her mother unnecessarily. She still hadn't mentioned the whole impromptu bondage- session at Spike's crypt yet. Buffy knew that her mother, despite being completely willing to side with her daughter against Spike if need be, had a soft spot in her heart for the bleached vampire. Only the Powers knew why, however, as Buffy still couldn't figure out what Joyce Summers could possibly see in the annoying bloodsucker.  
  
She crossed the street and sighed as she entered the residential track where her house was nestled. As she prepared to cross the threshold of her home, her hand paused on the doorknob and she shook her head sadly. "Everything would be so much easier if he didn't love me." Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door and entered the house, so as not to wake anyone up. She didn't see the dark figure swinging placidly on her front porch swing.  
  
Quietly, the figure rose from the swing and made its way to the side of the house, under Buffy's window, and leaned against the tree there. Here would be the best place to wait for the girl to complete the wish. The figure had to know exactly whom the girl wanted changed. and listening to her dreams seemed the best way to achieve that task.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Here you go, Buffy," the teacher said, smiling at her new student. Guiding her over to a blank canvas in the center of the empty classroom, she handed the girl a paintbrush.  
  
Dazedly, Buffy accepted the brush and stared at the canvas uncomprehendingly. "I-I don't understand."  
  
"Just paint what you'd like to see in your perfect someone," the teacher said in a soothing tone, fading into the background.  
  
Buffy nodded, turning with determination to the canvas. Dipping her brush in the single can next to the easel, she pulled it back to see it was tipped in black paint. Tentatively, she brushed the outline of a man's form, standing in a pose that could have made her swoon, were the man there in the room. Next, she dipped the brush in the can again, withdrawing it with yellow paint to create a sun shining high in the canvas' sky. She repeated the process, creating an upscale apartment complex in the background of the painting, as well as a convertible resting in the parking lot. She painted conservative - but sexy - clothes on the man, colorful, and anything but black. Blue jeans and a button-down green shirt.  
  
Buffy nodded with satisfaction as her paintbrush flew across the canvas, conjuring an unruly, yet adorable, mass of honey-brown curls atop the man's head. She left the scar in his eyebrow, just because she secretly thought it was attractive, but shook that thought from her head as she proceeded to color his skin with a slight tan. She painted a briefcase next to his feet, indicating employment of some nature. She smirked and painted a trashcan in the street next to the car. Inside the trashcan, she recreated the cigarettes, alcohol and a CD copy of the Ramones.  
  
Around the man, she painted a happy group of people. A redheaded girl, holding her books, looked at him with happiness, as did a brown-haired boy, a father-type man with glasses, two blondes, and a younger girl with long, shiny brown hair. She painted a cemetery in the last remaining free space on the canvas. Inside the cemetery, she painted a crypt, then painted a large red 'X' across it, indicating its non-acceptance.  
  
After a moment's thought, Buffy dipped her paintbrush across the top of the canvas, scrawling in the form of a title the name "William".  
  
The teacher, whose face she had still not seen, clapped her hands and hung the picture on the wall. "It's beautiful, Buffy. And you know what they say. A dream is a wish your heart makes."  
  
Buffy stared at the portrait, memorizing the scene with longing, not registering the words as they came from the fading figure of her 'teacher'.  
"Wish granted."  
TBC.  
  
A/N: What do you think? Should I continue? I know there are two other stories out there based on this same challenge, but I thought I could do something along these lines and make it good..Let me know. 


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